I worked on the Harris campaign. The weak election effort by Philly Dems is a sign that Bob Brady has to go.

Waking up on Wednesday, many Democrats were feeling mournful after a soul-crushing loss in the presidential election to an opponent we all know to be a racist and misogynist authoritarian.

It’s the kind of loss that can, and should, generate substantive discussion about how our country arrived at this place, and what, if anything, the Democrats could have done differently.

Though when The Inquirer’s political reporters turned to the chairman of the Philadelphia Democratic City Committee for his insight into what may have gone wrong, one could be forgiven for thinking they were reading the response of a petulant schoolchild who was ready to take his ball and go home, rather than a former member of Congress and leader of the Democratic Party in the largest city in the largest battleground state in the country.

» READ MORE: After a decisive Trump win, Democrats must figure out what comes next — and it starts in Philadelphia | Editorial

Chairman Bob Brady’s grievances about the Harris campaign spanned from criticizing our campaign for not “coordinating” closely enough with the local party (by which he means paying his political committee more than a million dollars for him to dole out as he sees fit) to the patently false claims that he had never met or spoken with Vice President Kamala Harris, and bemoaning his lack of VIP tickets for some of our campaigns’ rallies and events.

The common thread tying all of his complaints together? They are all about him — his power, his access, and frankly, his failure of leadership that has relegated the Philadelphia Democratic Party to resemble more of a social club for political has-beens than a functioning organization designed to grow and build power for working people, which at its core is what the Democratic Party is supposed to be about.

His answers raise another question that local Democrats must grapple with: After presiding over the Philadelphia Democratic Party since 1986, and overseeing multiple cycles in a row of declining voter turnout in the city, why should Democrats put up with Brady’s failed leadership any longer?

Chairman Brady should do what is best for his party, and his city, and step aside for a new generation of leadership, or he should be voted out of power by members of the Democratic City Committee if he is unwilling to relinquish his post.

Differences of opinion between local parties and national campaigns are nothing new. This dynamic has existed since well before I started working on presidential campaigns nearly a decade and a half ago, and will no doubt continue. But some traditions deserve to die, and one, in particular, that needs to meet a quick and shallow grave is Chairman Brady’s insistence on extorting campaigns for “street money” to fund his party operations.

When Brady complains about the Harris campaign not “coordinating” closely enough with him, what he really means is that we chose not to pay him an exorbitant amount of money that he could then pass along to his preferred committee people and ward leaders with little oversight and zero accountability, and therefore do extremely little to turn out voters.

Brady should do what is best for his party, and his city, and step aside for a new generation of leadership.

This practice occurs during local elections, as well, when candidates suffering from a lack of name ID clamor for the “privilege” of being endorsed by the city party who will then charge them tens of thousands of dollars to appear on the city committee’s sample ballot.

Sometimes this is the key to a local candidate’s victory — other times it doesn’t make a difference either way. In all cases, this behavior perpetuates a practice in which candidates are pressured to buy their way into a broken system, and the Philadelphia Democratic City Committee lethargically limps along, relying on these last-minute funds to pay for its meager operations.

The next chairperson of the Philadelphia Democratic Party should possess the vision to recreate the city party as a vehicle for building a robust multiracial coalition committed to organizing and building power for working people.

This work demands a leader who takes this mission seriously, and who is committed to doing the necessary fundraising to recruit and retain a professional staff that can help empower local wards and committees to run modern campaigns, with full access to the data and technology tools that the Democratic National Committee provides its state and local parties.

The last few years of the Brady era have been plagued by petty personal fights, forcing out committee members for backing candidates the establishment opposed, and completely ignoring its responsibility to register and engage new voters to expand the party’s coalition.

My hope is that the members of the Philadelphia Democratic City Committee realize that there’s no better time than now to chart a new way forward for our party and that this work begins at home.

Brendan McPhillips is a Philadelphia resident and a veteran of five Democratic presidential campaigns, most recently serving as a senior adviser to the Harris for President Pennsylvania team.